• Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Use Librewolf or a plugin that masks your user agent for privacy purposes; hides your OS so you can’t be fingerprinted so easily.

  • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    2 days ago

    Damn! If only we had some sort of technology that was OS independent and served as a way to view content and run code written for it without having to recompile for every platform.

    I am of course talking about web browsers. Which I’m betting this screenshot is from.

  • FEIN@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    For the record, my friend (he uses arch btw) has used Pearson before and I dont believe it actually affected him, so to me the message means “it could work for you but we won’t support Linux if something screws up on your end because we’re lazy developers”

      • Brandonazz@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Netflix does the same thing with “supported browsers.” It doesn’t matter if it’s actually supported, just whether it’s one of the two or three it allows because it can do analytics or whatever with them.

  • thorhop@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    “Upgrade”? Every other option is a downgrade. Sue them for false advertisement.

  • FryHyde@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    Very loose interpretation of the word “upgrade” they’re employing here…

    • lambipapp@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I assume it is a generic message, let’s say youd run windows 7. Then this message would sound more reasonable.

      But I agree, this is crazy if it is running in a browser

  • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    I’ll just change my web browser’s user agent then; you’re a fucking website, you don’t need to know which OS I’m using.

    It’s amazing how many “unsupported” web apps work perfectly fine once you change the UA. It’s often a completely arbitrary limitation so that they can hire less qualified support staff.

      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Nope we don’t want to hire anyone who knows anything about Linux, no one uses Linux

        “Linux is unsupported”, that’ll work

        Everyone: uses a UA switcher

        “See? No one uses Linux, 100% of users are on Windows or MacOS”

    • irelephant [he/him]🍭@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      A small publisher’s ebook platform recently started blocking firefox for me, did a bit of digging and found that if pages aren’t requested with the right headers (which work in chrome and msedge) it will respond with a 302, suggesting you go to another page which takes a few minutes and then times out.

      This is probably to stop scraping, and could be because I started testing some scraping scripts on it.

      Anyway, this hasn’t even stopped me scraping, I just copied the headers and use those in my script.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I had this problem over 10 years ago. change your user-agent, problem solved.

    they do it because they are regulations for educational software that must be met, like specific access requirements in order to be used in accredited courses.

    it’s not anything specifically against Linux, it’s that they can’t test and validate those access requirements for anything outside Windows due to organizational limitations.

    source: I worked for colleges early in my career that used Pearson then worked for a vendor that managed infrastructure and project management for Pearson. they aren’t unique, their competition is just as fucked as they are. most still use waterfall because upper mgmt is old and refuses to adapt.

    • cute_noker@feddit.dk
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      2 days ago

      My bank does this too. I also just change the user agent to switch and it works with no issues.

      At this point it just seems silly that they even want to go out of their way to Prohibit Linux users

    • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      How bad can it be?
      It was made by Bil Gates, I keep hearing he’s a genuine ‘philanthropist’.

      • Dragonstaff@leminal.space
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        1 day ago

        Boo! 🤮

        It is so infuriating how capitalists can use their stolen money to make people think they’re saints. (All the while their “help” causes more damage than if we let experts fix problems rather than pirate kings.)

        And it’s even harder to criticize this bastard now because liberals think he’s on their “side” and any criticism must be a “vaccine microchip” loon even when you talk about things he did openly.

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      they aren’t all. vast majority is Windows Server and IBM.

      edit: because people seem confused. I’m talking about Pearson directly, not global OS stats.

      chill tf out Linux weebs. I’m one of you.

          • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Nearly all of my daughters sites she visited in college were nix servers. The exception being one administration machine she used for her payroll access as a RA.

            • gamer@lemm.ee
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              2 days ago

              By “nix” do you actually mean Nix, or do you mean “*nix” as any Unix derivative?

              • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                Guess.

                Edit: ;) I guess you are all guessing poorly. Nix when I looked it up is just another fringe linix distro. Never heard of it because I don’t need a purpose built crippled distro for anything. Since a guess is too hard to do I will tell you even now most websites I access according to my router stats are Linix distros. Every now and then there will be a bsd based one and ever rarer than that a windows site. I’m seeing these downvotes as a function of bias against the norm. I find it funny and responses like this always bring a smile to my face.